Yes No Maybe So: Creed II

by Sean Donovan

The son of Apollo Creed returns in Creed II! Creed was one of the surprise gems of 2015, delivering blockbuster entertainment with genuine impact and grit. I was ready to write off this idea of a sequel as soon as I learned Ryan Coogler was not on board as a director, thinking that the resonance, intensity, and readiness to embrace topical political contexts of the first Creed all came from him.

But the first trailer, along with the film’s very elegant first poster, brawny and tough in the best way, has come along to soundly quell those concerns and suggest this is in no way a simple studio rush job. So let’s go over the evidence with a Yes No Maybe So™ Breakdown of the trailer and a full look at that perfect teaser poster...

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Months of Meryl: Dancing at Lughnasa (1998)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

 

#25 — Kate Mundy, the elder head of a matriarchal clan in Ireland’s County Donegal circa 1936.

MATTHEW: Dancing at Lughnasa continues the sporadic but prestigious practice, begun by Plenty and leading up to August: Osage County, of Meryl Streep headlining big-ticket Broadway plays in screen adaptations that tend to do a disservice to the often truncated works whose very suitability for such stage-to-cineplex transfers feels rather strained. (Angels in America, made for HBO, is obviously a highly distinguished exception.) These films are greenlit as glorified acting showcases in the hopes of magnetizing a similar haul of trophies as their acclaimed theatrical predecessors. They may feature some fine, forceful performances (from Streep and several others), but their claims as cinema remain dubious at best.

I’m always curious about why Streep seldom returns to her first love, the stage, especially when one considers that the actress’ greatest role in the last decade was not Susan Orlean, Clarissa Vaughan, or Miranda Priestley, but Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage, whose wagon of wares Streep took up for a 2006 Shakespeare in the Park production, four years after playing Irina in The Seagull for the same summer series...

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Three Questions for Nicole Kidman's Birthday

We went all out for Nicole Kidman's 50th birthday last year with 50 Appropriate Ways to Celebrate so this year on her 51st (happy birthday diva!) we'll keep it simpler.

Answer me these questions three in the comments:

1. What's your favorite performance of hers that isn't from her legend-making 2001-2004 run (i.e. The Others-Moulin Rouge!-The Hours-Cold Mountain-Dogville-Birth what a genius run that was!) 
2. What single scene -- minus the opera seen in Birth --pops into your head the most when her name is invoked?
3. What's a performance of hers that you haven't seen (she works so much you're surely missing something!) that you're most curious about?

and if you're on twitter go really crazy and do the 10 question meme

Soundtracking: "The Lion King"

by Chris Feil

When The Lion King arrived in 1994, it felt like the first Disney film fully developed in its post-Little Mermaid resurrected era. Whereas the genius of Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin feel like passion projects born of new financial fluidity, this film rings like a triumphant self-actualization of its return to dominance. It’s right there in the in the rising sun and thunderous opening incantation of “Circle of Life” - Disney reclaiming with force what they had lost and owning the cyclical nature of creative power.

It’s arresting stuff on a meta level, but that’s still incomparable to the song’s visceral gut level impact. Paired with the imagery of a convening animal kingdom both too fantastical to be true and rendered with breathtaking reality, “Circle of Life” feels so monumental that even immersive IMAX screens and sound systems can’t do its scale justice...

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Television Critics Association Nominees 2018

by Nathaniel R

The Television Critics Association has only been around in some form or another since the 1980s but they have recently been getting more press. That's partially, we suspect, because the Emmys are so relentlessly unsatisfying with their constant repetitions. The TCA Awards aren't against a repeat here and there but more than two wins is rare in any of their categories and they've proven fairly discerning in the past.

We aren't fans of their tradition of fusing performance into only two acting categories (genderless and without any way to recognize supporting players or differentiate between movies and series so this means far far far fewer times the nominees in an era where we're constantly told that there is an abundance of great work!) but otherwise we like them just fine.

They were absolutely besotted with the debut season of "Killing Eve" this year. Nominations for the 2017/2018 television season are after the jump... 

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